Senator Has Gaelic Radar

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has the freakish ability to detect distant Irish ancestry. Aussie Dominic Dunne met her at a book-signing in Washington, just after a group of Irish tourists.

After the Irish family had their book signed, I approached the altar and stood before the high priestess, who said perfunctorily: "How are you?", as she started to scribble her name, without extending so much as a glance in my direction.

"Very well thank you, Senator. How are you?" She suddenly looked up, taken, I assumed, by my Australian accent.

"Oh, very well, thank you!" she said, looking me in the eye. She signed the book and off I walked, overhearing her say to her assistant, "Everyone's from Ireland tonight".

I wanted to turn around and say: "Senator, you either know nothing or you're very perceptive. I speak with not a scintilla of an Irish accent, yet somehow you can detect my Irish roots." However, I feared her minders would remove me before I had the chance to explain that my ancestors lived in County Kildare. [Link]

Senator's Parents Predicted Everest Ascent

It's good to know that even Wellesley-educated Senators can fall for dubious family stories. Hillary Rodham Clinton was always told that she was named for Sir Edmund Hillary, famous for summiting Mount Everest.

Even though Bill Clinton repeated the story in his 2004 autobiography, “My Life,” Hillary Clinton did not mention it in her own autobiography, “Living History,” which was published in 2003.

But one big hole has been poked in the story over the years, both in cyberspace and elsewhere: Sir Edmund became famous only after climbing Everest in 1953. Mrs. Clinton, as it happens, was born in 1947. [Link]